It is time for a military coup. It is time for strong leadership to take over the reins of government and start to force some discipline on Congress. In other words, it is time for the Democrats to consider a candidate who has really good leadership and administrative skills and is as tough as nails.
Sound familiar? Sounds like a military-trained man doesn’t it? Forget MBAs (Bush? Ugh!) or Harvard-trained lawyers (talk in circles endlessly.) Let’s, by God, get the damned job done. Let’s create five million jobs, end the damned export of jobs and manufacturing, trim the military, and, yes, let’s fix health care (kill the profit motive) and reform Social Security 30 years from now so that people can opt in for a better retirement, or, if they do not, still have subsistence…which is all Social Security is today.
Let’s get tough on millionaires and billionaires. Forget tax breaks, just pay a third of your income a year…no more but no less. Corporations…pay a minimum of ten percent and perhaps a max of a quarter. That’s all we will need. Then, and only then, can we start to make the principal function of Congress to trim government. We don’t have too much government. We must, howerver, make it more efficient.
The Neoconservatives are basically a new Party. They took over the old Republican Party. They are militant politicians, career politicians, working for the “man,” for the multimillionaires and billionaires to destroy government…not make it more efficient. So we need our own leader…our own General…to wage war against them. And who might that be?
Well, you don’t have to be an expert to know that Colin Powell is a moderate who could lead Liberals. Wes Clark is a Liberal who could lead Liberals. And Anthony Zinni, could knock a few walls down for Progressives or Liberals. The point is that those on the other side, most of whom have never served a day in the military need to run up against a couple of strong Generals who have learned leadership from the ground up in frankly what is currently the best leadership school we have, the U.S. military.
Of course, it could be someone else. It could be Clark and Zinni, or Zinni and Powell or Clark and Shinseki. But let’s get a couple of very tough decision makers in office who know how to say “no” and know how to say (which most field grade officers shrink from hearing) “why isn’t that done?” or “When will that be done?” knowing that it damned well better be done when you say it will be done.
Congress people think that they can get around the military. That’s true when the military is subordinate to the civilian authority. But when there are military, commanding officers, Generals, like some that we have now who are brilliant, tough, Liberal and much better educated in government, like Petraeus and Odierno, than the stooges that shoe-horn themselves into Congress through race baiting or outright lies…then watch what happens. These tin-horn Congressmen will be shaking in their boots.
A mere phone call from one of these guys could make some of these members of Congress, including Senators wet their pants. These are men used to being obeyed, without question. They take the responsibility of giving orders…because lives are involved…very, very seriously.
These guys didn’t want to go to war in Iraq, They deferred, they objected, they argued…they left town…they did everything but go to the national media…which they are not allowed to do…to say…STOP this foolish enterprise. Let us handle it.
What about other generals, like Petraeus or others? Well, the fact is that there are others and there are other good ones who are Republican. But they can’t do us any good unless they suddenly turn around and show that they are all about the kids who were recklessly killed by stupid decisions.
Once they are no longer in service, like McCrystal, they have to stand up and say…Iraq was bullshit. Just like that. We wasted kids’ lives, and I am sorry I didn’t resign but at least I could do my best to protect them. That’s what these GOP generals would have to say to be believable. But if they did, if they were really honest, we would expand our potential candidates by probably 50 or so guys.
The rule used to be that there were something like 5,000 Colonels and 500 Generals, so there was a big cut down. When you get past two stars it was really rarefied atmosphere. Couldn’t have heart problems or diabetes and get that fourth star. Oh, sure, all these guys have some holes in them or bent bones, but every year the Doc says that they are ready for the top spot…or not. If we start looking at some of these four star guys, retired, you see some very, very capable leadership.
Of course the media doesn’t always agree. That is because the media, Liberal and even more Conservative reporters are basically wimps. And they are so wimpy that they don’t realize it until they run up against a really tough minded guy. If a Marine is not going to take the boat and leave the beach until every last wounded guy is in it, how tough do you think that a Marine General will be on a piece of legislation to get better care for the poor?
He (or now maybe she) will turn those legislators into butter. Compromises are merely flanking movements. And there are no retreats from principle. We’ve heard of a lot of wacky stories about fundamentalist religion in the military. Naturally, when you stand a good chance of being shot up or blown up, you might turn to a higher power to ask for a little help now and then. But you don’t get four stars without being someone to whom an entire theatre of operations, armies and divisions, tens of thousands of soldiers, can be entrusted. This is the kind of consideration by other, more senior officers in the selection process.
This is what we need. We need leadership. Action. Do it now. Get it done. Act and report. Gather the data. Make the decision and ACT. And do not fall back or equivocate. Decide what is best for the greatest number, what is the correct strategy. Sign off and go. That is the kind of governing we need…not feeble, quibbling, blabbering, obsequious, puny, self-serving commissions with no outcomes and no real concerns except their own…nothing for the people…nothing about the future of the country.
We need a military takeover. Powell or Clark or Zinni or Shinsecki or Petraeus or Odierno or Keane or Jones. Let’s find out who has the real values the real interests of the People at heart and try and get him to run on the Democratic ticket on behalf of all average American families.
